CANADA Debates of the Senate 2nd SESSION . 40th PARLIAMENT . VOLUME 146 . NUMBER 22 OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Thursday, March 26, 2009 ^ THE HONOURABLE NOËL A. KINSELLA SPEAKER CONTENTS (Daily index of proceedings appears at back of this issue). Debates Service: D'Arcy McPherson, Chambers Building, Room 943, Tel. 613-995-5756 Publications Centre: David Reeves, Chambers Building, Room 969, Tel. 613-947-0609 Published by the Senate Available from PWGSC ± Publishing and Depository Services, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0S5. Also available on the Internet: http://www.parl.gc.ca 500 THE SENATE Thursday, March 26, 2009 The Senate met at 1:30 p.m., the Speaker in the chair. [Translation] Prayers. I know how devoted Paul is to the Senate and how proud he is of this institution. SENATORS' STATEMENTS [English] MR. PAUL C. BÉLISLE I ask honourable senators to join me in showing our appreciation to Mr. Bélisle on completing 15 years of service as CLERK OF THE SENATE AND CLERK Clerk of the Senate and Clerk of the Parliaments and to wish him OF THE PARLIAMENTS well as he continues to lead the Senate administration. Hon. George J. Furey: Honourable senators, I rise today to pay tribute to our Clerk, Mr. Paul Bélisle, who, 15 years ago, took on Hon. Senators: Hear, hear! the many challenges that come with the position of Clerk of the Senate and Clerk of the Parliaments. It has been quite a career for . (1340) a young man who first came to the Senate as a page in 1971. In fact, Paul is one of the longest-serving employees of the Senate Hon. David Tkachuk: Honourable senators, I should like to say with 38 years under his belt. a few words about Mr. Bélisle's fifteenth anniversary on behalf of our side. While a student, he was also a messenger before joining the Committees Directorate first as a clerk and then as associate Your Honour and honourable senators, Mr. Bélisle started his director. He served as clerk to many standing committees and career in this place in 1971, when he served as a page while some notable special joint committees, such as the committees attending university. Indeed, he has been around the Senate on the Canadian Constitution, Senate reform and Canada's longer than any of us. international affairs. [Translation] To help pay his way through university, he worked as one of our night messengers. He then became a committee clerk while Mr. Bélisle has worked under four Speakers: Roméo Leblanc, attending law school. A few years later, he continued to serve as a Gildas Molgat, Daniel Hays and, of course, our current Speaker, committee clerk and took on additional responsibilities as the Senator Noël Kinsella. Associate Director of Committees and Private Legislation. [English] His remarkable career has also included positions as Executive Secretary of the Canada-France Interparliamentary Association; Paul Bélisle has also given good counsel and advice to several Executive Secretary Treasurer of the Commonwealth iterations of the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Parliamentary Association, Canadian region; and membership Budgets and Administration. The chairs and deputy chairs with on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Parliamentary Review. whom he has worked include such present and former honourable senators as Senators Hastings, Kenny, Rompkey, Kroft, Bacon, Di Nino, Nolin, DeWare, Atkins, Roberston, Keon, Stratton and Currently, Mr. Bélisle is a member of the Quebec bar, the Tkachuk. I am privileged to be part of such august company. Association of Clerks-at-the-Table in Canada, the Society of Clerks-at-the-Table in Commonwealth Parliaments, the Honourable senators, Mr. Bélisle works tirelessly in building Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments and and directing an administration that is both competent and l'Association des secrétaires généraux des Parlements professional. I can confirm his commitment to the highest francophones. standards of public service, accountability and transparency. Honourable senators, one can judge the character of a person [Translation] by those he hires. Over the years, as a committee chair and deputy chair, I worked with some of the very talented people that On behalf of the committee, I would like to congratulate and Mr. Bélisle brought to the Senate, including, to name a few, Till thank Mr. Bélisle. Heyde, Gérald Lafrenière, Denis Robert and many others. [English] Speaking to the Senate 15 years ago on the appointment of As Chair of the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Mr. Bélisle, the then Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable Budgets and Administration, I extend my congratulations John Lynch-Staunton, reminded us that: and thanks to Mr. Bélisle for his unwavering dedication to the well-being of the Senate, for his watchful eye over all of our Not many who are summoned to the Senate arrive with administrative operations and for his attentive stewardship of the anything more than a casual knowledge of the duties and resources we have entrusted to him. responsibilities, and indeed the privileges shared by these March 26, 2009 SENATE DEBATES 501 gowned officers of the Senate. Without them, we quickly each to eligible military and civilian personnel. The government find that we cannot be sworn in and we cannot make the has decided that ``eligible'' means that the applicant must be living required attestation. When in session, we rely more often and diagnosed with, at least one of 12 diseases identified by the than not on their so subtle signals to know when to sit, when U.S. Institute of Medicine. Furthermore, the applicant must have to stand, when to speak, and more subtly, when to be quiet. been living on the base or within a five-kilometre radius during the summers of 1966 and 1967. If the person died from cancer, the Mr. Bélisle's importance to this chamber, its committees and spouse or caregiver would be entitled to claim in their stead. beyond cannot be understated. He is the key to the smooth operation of the Senate, both as a legislative body and as an entity . (1345) with more than 400 employees. Honourable senators, two weeks ago Mr. Bélisle spoke the However, Minister Thompson announced that the program following words to our new pages at their swearing-in ceremony: would be effective only after February 6, 2006 — the day that the Harper government took office. Honourable senators, to be eligible, veterans or civilians would have to be living on or after Many years ago — I will not tell you how many — I was February 6, 2006. If they died before the Harper government took given the same unique opportunity to learn about our office, the caregiver would not be eligible for payment. parliamentary institutions and processes. At that time, I knew it would be a significant challenge in my young life. But I never imagined how the experience would chart Military Widows on a War Path is a group founded in New the course of my career by reinforcing my belief in the Brunswick that is fighting to correct the inequities of the Harper importance of public service. government. The members are widows whose husbands were confirmed to have been living at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown Mr. Bélisle, we thank you for the past 15 years as Clerk of the during the time of spraying and have the medical documentation Senate and Clerk of the Parliaments, for the advice you render proving that they were negatively affected by the dioxins in Agent every day at the table and for your work ensuring that this place Orange. Most of the members of Military Widows on a War Path runs properly. have applied for the ex gratia payments but have been denied on the grounds that their husbands died before the cut-off date of February 6, 2006. They argue that the surviving spouse of a We thank you as well for your dedication to the Senate in the serviceman who died before February 6, 2006, is as entitled to many years prior to your becoming our Clerk, for your work on payment as a surviving spouse of a serviceman who died after behalf of the Senate with Canadian and international February 6, 2006, all else being equal. parliamentary associations and, most importantly, as you put it yourself, for your belief in the importance of public service. Another qualifying date looms, honourable senators. The Hon. Senators: Hear, hear! deadline for the application process under this program expires on April 1, 2009, which is next week. As of the end of February, Veterans Affairs Canada had approved $41 million in payments. AGENT ORANGE That figure is less than one half of the allotted amount. Once the program has ended, the unused money will return to general Hon. Joseph A. Day: Honourable senators, the term ``Agent revenue and not to Veterans Affairs Canada. If there are funds Orange'' became almost a household expression in Canada during left in the program, why not relax the restrictions? Why are the the Vietnam War. Honourable senators will know that Agent only eligible years 1966 and 1967 when the spraying of Agent Orange is a toxic defoliant used by the United States military. Orange took place at other times as well? Why is it only a However, many of us did not know and do not know that the five-kilometre radius from the base? Why are only 12 diseases U.S. military was using Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base addressed, as outlined by the U.S. Institute of Medicine? Why Gagetown in New Brunswick during the 1960s. must a soldier who was serving in 1966-67 have been alive on February 6, 2006, when the Harper government was elected? Agent Orange contains a chemical called dioxin, a known carcinogen that has been linked to various types of cancer.